John mckat



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN MCKAY, OF TITUSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO \VALTER B. ROBERTS AND ERASTUS T. ROBERTS, OF SAME PLACE.

PROCESS OF CONVERTING NATURAL GAS lNTO lLLUMlNATlNG-GAS.

E'JPECIFICATIOP! forming part Of Letters Patent Nb. 340,231, dated April 2O 1886.

Application filed January 20, 1886. Serial No. 189,169. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J OHN MOKAY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Titusville, in the county of Crawford and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Process of Converting Natural Gas into Illuminating-Gas; andl do hereby declare thatthefollowingisa full,clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Heretofore efforts have been made to render natural gas (which is gas as produced directly from the earth) fit for-illuminating purposes and to. use it through thepipes and burners ordinarily used for illuminating gas. These have been toa great extent failures, the methods used failing to make the compound of the natural gas and the hydrocarr bons into a fixed gas suitable for illuminating purposes. v

The object of my invention is to enrich the natural gas with hydrocarbon, and by heating the compound to render it into a fixed gas,which cannot afterward be separated, and by the same process decomposing a great portion of the marsh-gas held by the natural gas in its crude state. I accomplish this by the process and treatment hereinafter described, as follows:

I introduce the natural gas into the base of a gas-scrubber, (preferably one the same or similar in form and operation to the one invented by me and for which I received Letters Patent of the United States, dated Oet ober 13, 1885, No. 328,134,) and at the same time introduce into the top of the scrubber above the revolving brush a jet of crude petroleum or naphtha mingled with ajet ofsteam, the petroleum (or naphtha) and steam being introduced under heavy pressure. The scrubber or revolving brush being in motion, the natural gas and the oil and steam are agitated and mingled together, and thus the gas is carbureted. In this form it is conductedinto the base ofwatcr-gas generator, and passes up decomposes a large portion of the marsh-gas held in suspension by the natural gas, and the steam introduced wit-h the crude petroleum (or naphtha) in passing through the bed of coal or coke is decomposed, and furnishes a sufticient amount of hydrogen, which unites with thehydrocarbon gas generated from the petroleum or naphtha, and forms a perfect illuminating-gas.

The flow of gas and oil through the scrubber is regulated by a stop cock in the pipe leading from the scrubber to the hydrocarbon generator, and by the manipulation of that stop-cock the gas is retained a greater or less time in the scrubber to receive the proper amount of enriching, which can be proved as the gas passes from the superheater.

In this application I do not claim the processes of treating natural gas for converting it into illuminatinggas by first mixing it with hydrocarbon vapors and then passing it through a body of heated fuel, or by firstmixing it with hydrocarbon vapors, and then passing itthrough abody of heated fue1,and finally passing it through a heated fixing-chamber, as such methods of operating are made the subject of a separate application.

Having described my process, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The process above described of converting natural gas into illuminating-gas by mingling with it in the gas-scrubber a combined jet of crude petroleum or naphtha and steam introduced under heavy pressure, and then passing the product through a bed of incandescent coal, coke, or similar substance, and from thence to a super-heater, substantially as described, and for the purposes herein set forth.

JOHN MoKAY.

\Vitnesses;

A. B. HOWLAND, HENRY KEHR. 

